The Story of Manhattan Beach. 



Copyright, 1879. 



THE STORY 
MANHATTAN BHACH: 

jl |lnirlioiil' mill ;j)li-tiii'csi|iir Si'l'iiicdlimi 

Its History, Development and Attractions, 



DESIGNED TO SHOW THE PLEASURE-SEEKER 

HOW TO SPEND A DAY OR A LONGER PERIOD AT THE SEA-SIDE 

WITH THE GREATEST ADVANTAGE, 



CONEY ISLAND 

FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES, WITH MANY INTERESTING FACTS CONCERNING 
ITS TRANSFORMATION FROM A SAND-DESERT INTO A FASHION- 
ABLE RESORT, AND A DESCRIPTION OF THE WAYS 



NEW.yORK: 

Francis Hart & Co., Printers and Stationers, 63 and 65 Murray St. 
1879. 




INTRODUCTIOX. 



TT is believed that of the thousands i^dio daily 
seek reereation at Manhattan Beach very 
fezv arc aware of the varied historical interest 
ivliicli attaches to it, and the folhnving pages 
have been ivrittcn to elucidate luU nicrclv the 
evoits attending its dcvcloptncut, but also its 
numerous charms and the tmsurpassed facili- 
ties it affords for holidays on the ocean. As 
compactly as possible, the icriter has endeavored 
to present much material that will be neiu to 
even the habitncs of the Beach, and his prin- 
cipal design has been to inform the reader of 
the matters 'which cannot fail to enhance the 
pleasure of a visit to this no'w famous zvatcr- 
iug-place. 



MANHATTAN BEACH. 



WITHIN easy distance of the metropolis 
and almost directly south of it, lies a 
long low spit of silvery white sand which is 
separated from Long Island by a narrow 
creek; it is beyond the portals of the upper 
bay, and the water that breaks in ermine 
surf along its shore is the pungent and 
undiluted brine of the Atlantic ; the ripples are 
homogeneous with those that play in the fierce 
heat of Africa, and the vast basin reaching out- 
ward has no nearer boundary than the Eastern 
hemisphere. 

One morning last Autumn, some Americans 
who had been absent from their country for 



12 The Story of 

several years, stood on the deck of an inward 
bound steamer, and gazed at this reach of 
sand as their vessel veered into the great ship 
channel ; the white surf made the sand seem 
golden; the sunshine was all-pervading, and 
a variety of buildings flying bunting and having 
a holiday aspect, led toward the eastern end 
to a cluster of palace-like structures which were 
quite new to the Americans. "That," said one 
of the oflScers, indicating the picturesque cluster 
with a sweep of his hand, — "that is Manhattan 
Beach," and it was a fact that, in the absence 
of the tourists, this handsome watering-place 
had sprung out of a region [jreviously unoccu- 
pied and uninviting. 

About two hundred and seventy years ago 
(April, 1609), Hendrick Hudson, having sailed 
from Amsterdam in search of a western path 
to the East Indies, stood off the same shore. 
His little vessel, the Halve Maetic, had for five 
months buffeted the storms, and been driven 
from Greenland to the Carolinas, when, upon 
the 3d of September, he sighted " three great 
rivers," one of which was probably the Hudson, 
the other Raritan Bay, and the third Rockaway 
Inlet. On the day following, according to his 
journal, he sent a number of his men ashore in 
a boat, " wlio caught ten great mullet and a 
ray as great as four men could haul into the 



Manhattan Beach. 



13 




ship." Tliey found large numbers of plum-trees 
loaded with fruit and surrounded by luxuriant 
grape-vines. The natives who came to meet 
them were amazed at the size of their ship, and 
vastly interested in their dress, language and 
color. They had no houses, but slept with 
the sky for a counterpane, on mats made of 



14 The Story of 

bushes and leaves. They were clothed in the 
skins of elk, foxes and other wild animals, and 
armed with bows and arrows. Now if it were 
necessarj- to establish a precedent for visitors 
to Manhattan Beach, we could find it in the 
valorous old explorer who sought the Orient 
through the Hudson River. 

Hudson's intercourse with the Indians was 
amicable in the beginning; they came on board 
his ship and traded tobacco, maize and fruit for 
knives and beads ; but on the third day, whilst 
some of the sailors were ashore, the savages — 
probably not without provocation — attacked 
them. John Coleman was killed b}' an arrow 
wound in the throat, and two others were 
wounded. This disaster gave the name to a 
neighboring point, which perpetuates Coleman's 
memory ; and although the Indians were dis- 
posed to resume their peaceful relations with 
Hudson afterward, he distrusted them, and 
moved to an anchorage in Gravesend Bay, 
which is bounded on the south by the western 
extremit)' of the sand-spit which lies so white 
in the sunshine. 

Manhattan Beach is the name of modern 
times given to the eastern end, and the whole 
reach is called Coney Island, the derivation of 
which nomenclature is ascribed to various 
sources: perhaps it came from an early Dutch 



Alaiihattaii Beach. 15 

settler named Coneynen ; perhaps from the 
ill-fated Coleman, or perhaps from the numbers 
of rabbits or conies which populated the island ; 
the latter origin seems most likely, and at all 
events the name has attached to it since 1644. 

The island extends some five miles from east 
to west, with an average width of not more 
than half a mile, and is about eleven miles 
directly south of the city of New-York. The 
western end, as we have said, forms Gravesend 
Bay and projects toward the Narrows, and the 
eastern end is Manhattan Beach, which has a 
sea frontage of nearly two and a half miles, 
facing the south. 

When Hudson landed, the shore was hilly 
and the water-line was probably two or three 
miles further seaward than it now is. Almost 
in the memory of living men grass was abun- 
dant on a part of the beach now invisible 
under the oscillations of the sea, and the growth 
of cedars afforded the inhabitants of the main- 
land a sufficiency of fuel for their winter fires. 
The soil is alluvial, except a small tract of 
tertiary, and the creek that separates it from 
Long Island winds through a marsh of vivid 
green, in which numerous wild birds are found. 

In approaching the island the passenger 
traverses a region of deep and varied historic 
interest. Opposite and on the mainland is 



16 The Story of 

the old town of Gravesend, which was settled 
in 1635, by a few English colonists, including 
a number of Quakers who had been expelled 
from the neighborhood of Boston, and it is 
probable that the name given to this settle- 
ment was brought from the old town near the 
mouth of the Thames, in England. Among 
the Quakers was a woman of rank, education 
and wealth, — the Lady Deborah Moody, — 
whose influence on the settlement was both 
powerful and beneficent. When the town 
was laid off in squares and inclosed by a 
stockade. Lady Moody and her companions 
found that, although liberty of conscience had 
been guaranteed them, a spirit of persecution 
was rife among the surrounding settlers, and 
she was arraigned by the authorities of New 
Amsterdam for repudiating infant baptism as an 
ordinance of God. Her defence was so elo- 
quent, however, that she escaped conviction, and 
she then applied herself to obtain the liberation 
of her companions, who were cliarged with sim- 
ilar "frightful heresies." Until her death in 
1659, this gifted woman exercised not only 
great influence in the affairs of the Colony, but 
also exerted herself for the elevation and im- 
provement of those who had persecuted her. 

When the English settled Gravesend, they 
were required to take an oath of allegiance to 



Manhattan Beach. 17 

the Dutch authorities, but the)- were never 
thoroughly loyal, and in the frequent contro- 
versies between the Dutch and English as to 
the sovereignty of Long Island, they espoused 
the cause of their native country, suffering 
much from the tyranny of the authorities in 
consequence. In 1655, they openly disa- 
vowed the Dutch, and announced themselves 
as subjects of Great Britain. Five years 
later, a force of eighty Englishmen rode into 
the town, declared that it belonged to the 
king, deposed the magistrates, and appointed 
new ones. 

The first town meeting was held in 1646, 
when every inhabitant was ordered to help in 
building a fence to inclose a common field of 
corn, and a herdsman was appointed to look 
after the cattle running at large. A court- 
house was built in 1668, and the following was 
one of the earliest judgments recorded : 

" Whereas, during this Court of Sessions, 
there hath been several misdemeanors com- 
mitted in contempt of authority in this town 
of Gravesend, by one pulling down the fences, 
throwing down the stocks, and such crimes ; 
the Court also finds there was no watch in the 
town, which might have prevented it ; and 
being the offenders cannot be discovered, it is 
ordered that the town stand fine in five 
2 



18 The Story of 

pounds, till they have made a discovery of 
the offenders." 

In 1669, a ship was built, measuring about 
seventy tons, and during the war of Independ- 
ence, an English corvette of twenty guns was 
captured off Coney Island. Gravesend Bay 
was also the scene of General Howe's landing 
as he removed his forces from Staten Island to 
Long Island, previous to the battle on the 
Heights. He compelled the inhabitants to 
work on the fortifications, and to guide his 
foraging parties ; he took possession of their 
houses, and quartered his soldiers with them. 
At the same time, he guaranteed their per- 
sonal security, and ordered them to attend at 
his head-quarters, where certificates were issued 
to them, and each man was ordered to fasten a 
piece of red flannel to his hat. The demand 
for fabrics of this sanguinary color was so great 
in consequence, that the women tore up their 
flannel petticoats to meet it, and with this 
badge of servitude over their brows, the citi- 
zens of Gravesend whispered threats of ven- 
geance among themselves. The disastrous 
battle of Long Island, in wliich Howe was so 
successful, deferred the realization of their 
schemes, however, and those who were unwill- 
ing or unable to effect an escape to the Amer- 
ican lines had to bear much derision from the 



Manhattan Beach. 



19 



bluff, hard-drinking, and hard-swearing soldiers 
of the King. 

The capture of the corvette previously 
referred to was accomplished in this wise : She 
anchored late one night off Coney Island, 
whence she was bound to Halifax, and a gal- 
lant old whaler named Huyler, smarting per- 




ning of Corvette off Coney Island. 



haps under the wrongs suffered at the hands 
of the red-coats, conceived the bold idea of 
seizing and destroying her. A few trusty 
friends co-operated with him in the exploit ; 
they muffled their oars, and rowed under the 
stern of the ship ; no watch was on deck, and 
the officers could be seen through the cabin 



20 The Story of 

windows playing a game of cards. A second 
boat stood some distance behind the first, and, 
at a signal, one crew boarded the corvette over 
the port side and the other over the starboard. 
Both the officers and men were completely 
surprised. They were secured and lowered 
into the boats, and the corvette was then set 
on fire. The captors pulled over toward the 
Jersey shore with their prisoners, and the 
captain of the corvette is said to have wept 
bitterly — whether from the mellowing effects 
of wine or chagrin is not known. "To be sur- 
prised and taken by two d d egg-shells is 

too bad," he complained. He praised the gal- 
lant enterprise of Huyler, and told him that 
there were forty thousand dollars on board the 
ship that was now illuminating the whole bay 
with its flames ; but the treasure was not 
secured. 

Near Gravesend is the town of New Utrecht, 
which is also of historic interest. It was settled 
in 1654 by about twenty families from Holland, 
who erected a block-house for their protection 
from Indians, robbers and pirates, and it is 
now the site of many pretty villas. It includes 
Fort Hamilton, which commands the entrance 
to New- York harbor. Near Fort Hamilton 
stands insular Fort Lafayette, in which many 
political prisoners were confined during the 



ManJiattait Beach. 21 

civil war, and on the opposite shore of Staten 
Island are f'ort Richmond and Fort Wads- 
worth, which complete an almost impregnable 
system of fortifications. The Indian name of 
the neighborhood around Fort Hamilton was 
Nyack, and it was here that Colonel Richard 
Nichols, afterward Governor of New-York, 
wrote to Governor Stuyvesant, demanding the 
surrender of the New Netherlands. Here also, 
off Fort Hamilton, the British anchored thirty- 
seven men-of-war and four hundred transports, 
carrying twenty-seven thousand soldiers, pre- 
vious to the battle of Long Island. 



22 



Tlie Story of 



Chapter II. 




HILE the new 
republic was 
grovMng into 
one of the first powers 
,' in the world, and the 

city on Manhattan Island was attaining pro- 
portions that made it a compeer of Paris 
and London, the beach on which Hudson 
landed two hundred and seventy years ago 
was utterly neglected ; the Indians disap- 
peared, and the wind and sea leveled its high 
conformation, and swept away the cedars and 
grape-vines. Newport, Atlantic City, Long 
Branch, Cape May, and a score of other water- 



Manhattan Beach. 23 

ing-places, sprang into existence, and were 
resorted to by the scented and furbelowed 
crowds of the fashionable world. But except 
the natural changes on its surface that we have 
mentioned, Coney Island met with no other 
mutations than the heat of summer and the 
storms of winter. It presented the same 
aspect to the mariner of a century ago that it 
did to the commander of the ocean steamer 
of modern times. It was low, white, and 
desolate. Occasionally a vessel went ashore 
on the beach, and the inhabitants of the main- 
land flocked over with succor. A few "clam- 
mers " and oystermen lived in huts along the 
creek separating it from the mainland, and now 
and then a sportsman came in winter after 
game. These were the only visitors or resi- 
dents the island had, and while it was within 
eleven miles of the throbbing city, it was as 
isolated as the Labrador. 

So it remained until a comparatively recent 
period, when its convenience and natural ex- 
cellence as a sea-side resort began in a measure 
to be recognized. A few scattered restaurants, 
" pavilions " and bath-houses were erected 
midway between the western end and the 
present site of " Cable's " hotel. Communica- 
tion with the city was established by a line 
of horse-cars from Brooklyn, and a line of 



24 The Story of 

steamers from East and North River landings. 
A few years later saw the opening of a single- 
track railway from Greenwood. As the horse- 
cars took about three hours to make the 
journey, and were started only at long inter- 
vals, while the steamers were of inferior char- 
acter, and the railway trains were dispatched 
not oftener than once an hour, the influ.x of 
visitors did not overtax the limited accom- 
modations provided for them. Those whose 
patience was sufficient to endure the tedium 
of the journey, found a beach, which either 
for bathing purposes or promenade could not 
be surpassed. It was firm, clean, and so 
inclined, that while the sea always formed a 
surf, the waves were not too boisterous. 
There were no quicksands, and no shells to 
wound the feet, and the air was pure and 
exhilarating. But though it was naturally 
superior to Long Branch, an objectionable class 
of visitors took possession of it, and their 
presence gave it a reputation which excluded 
the more desirable element. It is no exag- 
geration to say that a man with respect for 
himself, much less a woman or child, could not 
travel by the steamers. Scenes of riot and 
violence were of frequent occurrence on board. 
The writer distinctly remembers a visit paid 
by him to the island some seven years ago. 



Mnnhattan Bcacli. 25 

The sail down the bay was made in an anti- 
quated steamer. At the hmding there was a 
barn-Hke dining-room, with a still more barn- 
like bar-room attached ; chops, steaks, and 
chowder, of a very inferior quality, were pur- 
veyed at the prices of fashionable city restau- 
rants, and, if in addition to refreshments the 
visitor desired a bath, he was directed to a 
dilapidated shanty, where twenty-five cents 
were charged for a bathing-suit, and a similar 
sum for the deposit of his purse or -Avatch. 
" Three-card monte " swindlers had their tables 
along the beach, and they plied their trade 
with considerable success. At the end of a 
vacuous day the visitor returned to the city, 
lucky if he escaped robbery or insult, and he 
did not usually repeat his visit. 

Between 1874 and 1876, some improvements 
were made, and a better class of people 
appeared disposed to use their influence in 
making one of the finest beaches in the world 
available. New steamers were put on the 
water route, and the hotel accommodations 
were extended. But the island ranked far 
below the neighboring Long Branch, or even 
Rockaway, and what was actually the best part 
of the beach was a terra incognita which the 
most venturesome pedestrians seldom explored. 
" How obvious it was that here could be 



26 The Story of 

developed a sea-side resort absolutely un- 
equaled in attractions and in the means of 
access, — a sea-side resort that would become 
more popular than Long Branch, Rockaway or 
Newport ! " the visionary of to-day proclaims, 
as he gazes upon what has been accomplished. 
How obvious also was it that in the vapor 
which James Watt sav/ issuing from his 
mother's tea-kettle reposed the power which 
propels " Great Easterns " and draws trains of 
palace- cars across a continent; that a cord of 
gutta percha, hemp and wire, could convey 
messages around the world in twenty minutes, 
as Puck prophetically hath it ; that Union 
Square would one day be the center of New- 
York, — how obvious in the retrospect, and 
yet the theories of Watt were laughed at ; the 
projectors of the Atlantic cable sought for sup- 
porters to their enterprise in vain, and the most 
sagacious Knickerbocker who sauntered after 
dinner as far as the City Hall, and gazed on 
the waste land beyond, probably thought it as 
poor an investment as he could possibly make. 
A Columbus or a Fulton crystallizes an idea 
which has found lodgment in the brains of 
thousands who could never formulate it, and 
when it is expressed these thousands exclaim : 
" How true — how often we have felt it !" But 
it is the genius of prophetic intuition that 



Manhattan Beach. 27 

makes the successful engineer, the successful 
inventor, and the successful capitalist, — the 
capacity to foresee that which everybody 
lightly says, when the object has been attained, 
might have been foreseen by an infant. 

This digression leads to the second discovery 
of Coney Island, which was still more eventful 
than the first discovery by Hendrick Hudson. 

A New- York banker had an invalid child for 
whom sea-air was prescribed by the physicians 
as a cure, and as his business compelled his 
daily presence in the city, he decided to locate 
his family on Coney Island, whither he went 
with his horses and carriages, finding quarters 
in the only family hotel available there pre- 
vious to 1874. The child improved rapidly, and 
the father perceived that in ignored, ill-reputed 
Coney Island were all the requisites of a most 
desirable sea-side resort. Mr. Austin Corbin 
— such was the banker's name — did not make 
any pretence to the possession of extraor- 
dinary shrewdness in deciding that he had dis- 
covered the site of a watering-place that would 
reveal undreamed-of pleasures to the over- 
worked New-Yorkers. He saw that with the 
elimination of the old class of visitors and the 
introduction of suitable accommodations for a 
better class, the island might take the place 
intended for it by nature. More than this, he 



28 The Story of 

carefully explored the unfrequented eastern half 
of the island, and found there advantages which 
the other half did not possess, — a stretch of 
beach as firm as asphalt, which was washed by 
the sea on both sides ; which would afford still- 
water as well as surf bathing, besides boating 
and fishing ; and which, finally, was not merely 
at the sea-side, but practically at sea. If the 
reader will consult a map, he will find that for 
nearly half its length the island is bounded on 
the north by an ample bay, which separates it 
from the mainland, and while the southern 
shore is edged by unceasing surf, its northern 
border is played upon by the gentle ripples of 
this bay. Another point discovered was that 
the undertow, which is the great drawback of 
many Atlantic watering-places, was absent 
here. The ocean currents setting from the 
eastward, and those flowing through the Nar- 
rows, meet opposite the eastern end of Coney 
Island and create a sort of pool, which escapes 
the suction common elsewhere on the coast. 
What more could be desired ? Where, on the 
shores of Great Britain, France, or the United 
States, could the combined excellences lav- 
ished by nature on this neglected spot be 
found? A few friends — gentlemen of influ- 
ence and of capital — were got together ; 
the New- York and Manhattan Beach Railway 



Manhattan Beach. 29 

Company was formed ; the titles and leases of 
the ground were bought up, and the active 
operations begun which have resulted in the 
brilliant transformation that the eastern half of 
Coney Island has undergone during the last 
three years. It was the original design to 
create a resort which should be eminently 
select, and from which every objectionable 
character should be excluded. This design has 
been steadfastly adhered to, the sole proprie- 
torship of the land which the company pos- 
sesses enabling it to control the character of its 
visitors; consequently, at no watering-place i.s 
the representation of the best social classes 
larger than at Manhattan Beach. 

One of the earliest and most vital considera- 
tions was the means of transportation from the 
city. No matter how attractive a watering- 
place might be, it was evident that few would 
patronize it until it became more accessible 
than the east half of Coney Island was in 
1874. The journey by horse-car through 
Brooklyn took too much time ; a resident of 
New- York living above Twenty-third street 
could not by this route, in connection with the 
railway from Greenwood, reach the island in 
less than two hours, and the same length of 
time was consumed by the return trip. It was 
seen that a convenient, quick and agreeable 



30 The Story of 

transportation was as essential as a superb 
cuisine or a luxurious hotel. A railway ex- 
tended from Bay Ridge toward Jamaica, Long 
Island, which was secured and diverted from a 
point near Deerfoot Park to the beach. Con- 
nections with the city were made at Bay Ridge 
by a fine line of steamers, and by this route 
passengers living above Twenty-third street 
were landed at the island within an hour of 
their departure from their homes, and those 
living farther down town were landed in a still 
shorter time. A second line was extended 
through East New- York to Greenpoint, by 
which the residents of the city could reach the 
island in thirty-five minutes. The depot at 
Greenpoint was on the East River, and con- 
nected with Tenth and Twenty-third street 
ferries. By the latter "all rail" route the island 
is now brought within less than an hour's dis- 
tance to the up-town residents of New-York, 
and a gentleman leaving Madison Square at 
five in the afternoon can be back by eleven 
o'clock, after dining and spending four hours 
by the sea-side. The whole line of double 
track was laid with steel rails ; rolling stock of 
the best description was purchased, and thirty 
thousand passengers could be carried to and 
fro daily, without inconvenience or danger. 
The equipment included air-brakes, parlor cars, 



Manhattan Beach. 31 

and every other feature which could possibly 
increase the comfort of passengers. 

The hotel was built, and in the summer of 

1877 this new watering-place was opened to 
the public, and at once became the fashion ; 
neither Newport nor Long Branch attracted 
more brilliant throngs. In the summer of 

1878 the accommodations were extended, 
and they are now increased again for the 
summer of 1879. The place was considered 
such a boon that many notable citizens, in 
no way interested in it pecuniarily, publicly 
commended it, among others the president of 
the Board of Education of New-York City, 
who, in an address to the pupils of the Normal 
College, described Manhattan Beach as the 
most attractive resort he had ever visited. The 
newspapers devoted columns of description to 
it, and the people recognized that for the first 
time New- York had acquired a practicable sea- 
side resort, — practicable in the sense of com- 
bined accessibility, economy, comfort and 
decorum. What a revelation and a blessing 
the beach became to the thousands whose 
business compelled them to reside in the city 
during midsummer, we need not say. For- 
merly, as we have seen, a trip to Coney Island 
meant tedium and execrable fare, compensated 
for in a measure by the sea-bathing and the 



32 



The Story of 




air. Now the 
sea-bathing 
and exhilarat- 
ing air were 
procurable 
with every 
imaginable 
auxiliary for 
the promotion of comfort. 

Landing on the beach the visitor found a 
splendid hotel, with spacious piazzas, magnifi- 
cent halls, luxurious apartments, and a restau- 
rant in which both the cuisine and the service 



Manhattan Beach. 33 

were of the highest excellence. He found 
unique bathing-houses and a superb beach, 
uninvaded by troublesome side-shows and 
hucksters' stands. After a bath and a dinner, 
he resigned himself to a bliss as complete as 
mortal may expect to attain. A wondrously 
beautiful light fell on the ocean, and the distant 
heights of the Neversink became a purple 
tinged with gold. The ships seemed still and 
spectral ; the night came up in a heavy blue, 
and there was solace in the rhythmic beat of 
the waves. In front of the balcony on which 
he rested, a fine -band played, and the music 
was indescribably softened by the contiguity 
of the water. A crowd of promenaders surged 
through the halls and piazzas. There were 
animation, variety, brilliancy, and at the same 
time the communicative repose and exhilara- 
tion of the sea. We have only described the 
mood of an hour. There were other times in 
the day when the water twinkled with myriad 
diamond-points of reflected sunshine, and the 
East was belted with a delicate violet haze ; 
when the lower bay was dotted with the white 
sails of yachts, and the foliage of the Highlands 
was visible in a dark blue-green, and when the 
beach was crowded with ladies, children and 
nurses. Again, there were the morning hours, 
soft, hazy, cool, and the moonlight nights, 



34 The Story of 

luminous, tranquil and silent. In every mood 
and phase, Manhattan Beach was charming ; 
the selectness designed for it by its projectors 
was maintained, and no element of permanent 
success was lacking. 

Let us change the tense. Manhattan Beach 
is an accomplished fact, a splendid achieve- 
ment ; but it is progressive, and the attractions 
that we have enumerated as being offered to 
the visitor last summer are supplemented this 
season by others. An extensive addition has 
been made to the hotel ; the accommodations 
for bathing have been increased, and more 
space has been given to excursionists who 
come provided with their own luncheons. It 
is, perhaps, a criterion of the character and 
resources of the hotel that two of the most 
exclusive and prominent clubs in New- York, 
the Union and the Union League, have 
selected it for a sea-beach branch, and have 
rented suites of the largest rooms permanently. 
There are two large restaurants in the main 
building, besides dining accommodations on 
the piazzas. There are also many private 
dining-rooms, and a visitor may see nearly 
four hundred tables, with at least four seats to 
each, occupied at the same time. The pavil- 
ion for excursionists has seats for one thousand 
five hundred people, and has a culinary capac- 



Alauliattau Beach. 35 

ity for five thousand persons a day. The 
kitchen in the main building has all the requi- 
sites for providing for ten thousand a day, and in 
several instances twenty thousand visitors have 
been dined with complete satisfaction to them- 
selves. One part of the pavilion is devoted to 
fish dinners, which are prepared by a special 
cook, and another part is reserved for the 
gratuitous use of the excursionists. There are 
several hundred bedrooms of ample size, and 
the hotel is furnished in all departments after 
the fashionable Eastlake stj'le. The floors are 
of oiled woods, and there is no veneer or 
meretricious decoration. The fresh water is 
obtained from a well on the mainland, and is 
almost chemically pure. The beach is pa- 
trolled by detectives and special policemen, 
whose vigilance leads to the prompt ejection 
of any disorderly characters who have smug- 
gled themselves on to the grounds. But above 
all other arrangements are those for bathing, 
which, we venture to affirm, are infinitely 
superior to those at any other watering-place, 
not excepting Brighton, Scarborough, Rams- 
gate, or Margate, England ; Trouville, France ; 
or Long Branch, Newport or Cape May 
in the United States. The bathing-house 
has a frontage of five hundred and twenty 
feet, and comprises sixteen hundred and 



36 



The Story of 



fifty dressing-rooms for gentlemen, and six 
hundred rooms for ladies. All these rooms are 
constructed of the best hard wood, tastefully 
painted inside and out, and all are supplied 
w ith running water and gas. The gentlemen's 
pavilion is a three-story structure, measuring 
eighty-four by one hundred and thirty feet; 




Bathing Pavilion. 

the ladies' pavilion is of the same height, and 
measures eighty-four by forty-five feet. Be- 
tween the two is a spacious amphitheatre, ^\ith 
seats for two thousand persons, who are thu •> 
afforded a view of the bathers and the ocean. 
Concerts are given in the amphitheatre daily, 



Manhattan Beach. 37 

and the beach in fnmt is reserved exclusively 
for bathers, who, in entering the water and 
emerging, are thus protected from the intrusion 
of spectators. The laundry is the most won- 
derful laundry ever heard of. In the old times 
at Coney Island, if a visitor wanted to bathe, 
he was provided with a suit that was still wet 
from previous use, with towels in a clammy 
state of moisture, and witli a toilet-room of 
unplaned boards. Ladies were compelled to 
use rooms next to those of offensive men, 
whose conversation could be distinctly over- 
heard. At Manhattan Beach, the toilet accom- 
modations for the sexes arc separated as we 
have seen, and each bathing-suit is thoroughly 
washed and dried before it is loaned to a 
second person. There arc twenty thousand 
towels and twel\"e thousand suits, and the 
laundry has facilities for washing two thousand 
suits an hour. Two endless belts convey wet 
clothes from the bath-rooms to the laundry, 
and pneumatic tubes are used to convey the 
clothes, when they are washed and dried, from 
the laundry to the distributing department. A 
pump with an engine of sixty horse-power 
supplies the bath-rooms with si.x hundred gal- 
lons a minute ; two Marvin safes are provided 
for the deposit of valuables during the bath ; 
an electric light enables bathing to be contin- 



38 The Story of 

ued after dark, and life-guardsmen in boats 
patrol the water to prevent accidents. 

" Anything more ? " 

"Yes, my dear sir," we say to the reader; 
"a great deal more : notably, the hot and cold 
salt-water baths in the buildings." If perfect 
privacy is desired, or if the sea-water at its 
natural temperature is too severe, the person 
so inclined may enjoy in-doors a bath 
heated to any degree that suits him. " It 
seems like a superfluity for a physician to 
recommend sea-bathing," says Dr. Wm. A. 
Hammond, the eminent neurologist, " but 
if there are any who doubt its advan- 
tages, to the overworked New-Yorker espe- 
cially, I am perfectly willing to give whatever 
weight my statement may have to the assur- 
ance, that if there is any better hygienic power 
than the air and sea of Manhattan Beach, I 
do not know what it is." Dr. Hammond is 
undoubtedly correct. Twenty minutes or half 
an hour in the surf at Manhattan Beach is 
better than a dozen doses of the most potent 
elixir of life ever concocted. You land at the 
beach, say at three in the afternoon, and when 
you have cooled yourself under the piazzas 
you enter one of the dressing-rooms and dis- 
robe ; then you roll in the surf for a while, 
and dress ; then saunter along the shore, with 



Manliattan Beach. 



39 



a breeze fanning you that is cool in the 
extremest dog-days. Finally you dine and 
light a cigar, and no Eastern potentate can 
appreciate the meaning of superlative luxury 
as well as you at this moment. 

A narrow-gauge railway extends along the 
margin of the beach for most of its length, and ' 
by it steam transportation is afforded to the 










eastern extremity of the island, where old- 
fashioned clam-roasts are served, and where 
sail and row boats may be hired for use on the 
quiet waters of the bay or outside the bar. 
Another attraction is the captive balloon, 
similar to that of the recent Paris Exposition, 
by which visitors can ascend in the care of an 
experienced aeronaut to a height which gives 



40 The Story of 

them an idea of life in the clouds, and at the 
same time discloses a wide and beautiful reach 
of sea and land. 

Pyrotechnic displays of a novelty and 
grandeur hitherto unknown in America will 
be presented at intervals during the season by 
the " Alexandra Exhibition Company " ; an 
inclosure of several acres, convenient to the 
hotel, has been secured for the purpose, and 
the company propose to repeat their wonderful 
exhibitions which have become so famous at 
the Alexandra and Crystal Palace Company's 
grounds in London. 

A little to the east of the hotel is one of the 
life-saving stations of the United States, which, 
though it is unoccupied from May until 
November, is w'ell worth inspection. During 
the winter months the beach is patrolled by 
the surf-men of the station every night. Each 
patrolman carries a beach lantern and a red 
Coston hand-light, and on the discover)' of a 
vessel in distress he burns the latter, both to 
alarm his companions at the station and to give 
notice to those on the wreck that succo • \ ar. 

Let us suppose that it is a wild 1^' :r 

night, with a blustering, poignant North-easter 
blowing. A big fire is blazing in the station- 
house, and four of the men, with the keeper, 
are taking their ease around it, or lying in their 



Maithattan Beach. 41 

bunks, while the two others are putting on 
their coats and mufflers, and looking longingly 
toward the hearth. The latter are going out 
on patrol, and as they are human they delay 
as much as possible, re-adjusting their dress, 
pressing their pilot-caps over their heads, 
pulling their gloves farther on, and giving their 
neck-cloths a final twist. The duty is inexo- 
rable, and, with a last glance at the fire, they 
plunge into the outer night. The wind is full 
of needle-points and cuts them like a knife, 
and the darkness blinds them for a moment, 
and extends in every direction, except around 
their feet, over which the lanterns cast a ring 
of white light, and in the window of the station, 
which glows with warmth. Above the moan- 
ing of the air is the loud beat of the sea, as 
the waves break on the shore and recede with 
a sibilant sound, and the spray is lifted and 
dri\'en in-shore by the wind in feathery streaks. 
The big hotel of Manhattan Beach, which in 
summer is illuminated from basement to roof, 
the handsome pa\'ilions, the piazzas and prome- 
nades, are utterly dark and deserted. Not a 
sign of human life is visible. The two patrol- 
men say " good-night " and separate ; one looks 
back to see the lantern of the other swinging 
to and fro on the sands, and decreasing in 
brilliancy until it is altogether lost behind a 



42 The Story of 

low ridge of sand, and he then feels absolutely 
alone amid an unreal silence that would not be 
as awful were the wind and sea completely 
still. The walk would have many terrors for 
a nervous or superstitious man, or for any one 
of sensitive organization ; and the patrolman 
is superstitious ; but he is so familiar with the 
darkness, the loneliness and the roar that he 
treads along the beach in a reverie — not a 
reverie on the deep secrets over which Nature 
is brooding, but on so prosaic a matter as the 
care of a small family who are now fast asleep 
on the mainland — until he fancies he discovers 
a light fastened to the black wall that seems 
to be built up from the sea. He stands still, 
and looks for it again ; it has disappeared. In 
a minute it re-appears ; and now the first light, 
that has stood at the mast-head of a vessel in 
distress, is augmented by the flare of a rocket 
and the blue fire of a signal, which reveal a 
schooner close in-shore and in extreme peril. 

According to his instructions, the patrolman 
instantly ignites his red light, which is done 
by striking the holder against his knee, which 
action explodes a percussion cap, and he is 
surrounded for several seconds by a flood of 
crimson so vivid and so vigorous that no wind 
or rain is strong enough to extinguish it. 
When the light expires he hastens back to the 



]\[anliatta7i BcacJi. 



43 



station with the news, and that quiet outpost 
is suddenly put into as tumultuous a state as 
the storm outside. The life-boat is placed on 
a carriage, the carriage having very broad tires 
to its wheels, so 
that they can- 
not sink in the 
loose sand, and 
the life-car, with 
other apparatus, 
is placed in an- 
other vehicle, 
both b e i n I 
drawn to the 




point neaiLst 
the w r e c 
where efforts 
are made to ob- 
tain communi- 
cation with it. There are three possible means 
of communication — the life-boat, the life-car 
and the life- raft. The first two are in use at 
all stations, and the last has been adopted at a 



44 The Story of 

few, but it is only under very favorable cir- 
cumstances, or in extremities, that the boat is 
used. A line is thrown over the wreck either 
by a rocket or a mortar and shell, several 
efforts being made before success is attained, 
and the first line is attached to a stronger one 
that is secured to the mast of the vessel and to 
the shore. The life-car is suspended from the 
line and hauled on board the distressed ship; 
three or four persons are put inside it, and it 
is hauled back again, repeating the journey 
until all are safely landed. But the work, as 
is the case with most things, is easier to describe 
than to perform. If the wind is blowing on 
shore, rocket after rocket flies on its meteor-like 
course through the tempest, falling short, or 
being carried too far ahead or astern by the 
wind ; sometimes the rocket fails altogether, 
and the boat or life-raft is the only resource 
left. 

The life-raft resembles a covered boat with a 
few air-holes in the top, the perforations having 
raised edges to prevent the water from enter- 
ing, and it has a ring at each end, with a 
hawser attached, that enables it to be drawn 
through the surf The " boatswain's chair " 
and the " breeches buoy " are similar, though 
older and less efficacious devices. 

Having seen the patrolman's red light burn- 



Manhattan Beach. 45 

ing, the crew of the wrecked ship utter a 
glad cry of dcHverance and wait for the brilliant 
spurt of the rocket bearing the line to them. 
;- .;: - I to the end of the line is a board with 
i ::..j.i3 ill several languages, and if they are 
wed, communication is soon established 
w ith the shore. 

The \isitor to Manhattan Beach — in the 
winter season — may sometimes see the coast- 
wreckers at work on some vessel which has 
stranded or sunk, and may witness the exceed- 
ingly interesting operation of raising a large 
ship. The mode of operation, in- brief, is as 
follows : three or more heavy cables are 
lowered to the bottom of the sea and dragged 
under the hull, by divers ; when these are 
properly adjusted, huge wooden pontoons are 
towed over the wreck, and the cables are 
passed up through water-tight well- holes and 
then drawn upward by hydraulic power. This 
part of the work costs severe effort and much 
time, but when it is done, the injured vessel, as 
a doctor would say, is in a fair way to recovery. 
The cables are drawn up through the wells, 
link by link, and are gradually tightened, until 
the wreck lifts. It rises slowly, and the pon- 
toons groan from the weight bearing upon 
them. For some time yet the wreck is out of 
sight, but at last the deck is seen dimly 



46 



The Story of 



through the waves, and soon afterward it is 
above water. Then the cargo has to be 
removed in whole or in part ; the divers are 
sent down to discover the leaks, and, when 
discovered, to patch them with canvas and 
thin planking. Then steam pumps, of enor- 




mous capacity, quickly clear the vessel of 
water, and she is towed to a dry dock for 
repairs. 

The mackerel and blue-fishing off Manhattan 
Beach is exceedingly good, and this suggests 
another means of recreation within reach of the 
visitor. Let him form a party of good fellows, 
who are " never, never, or hardly ever, sick at 
sea," and bring them down to the beach in the 
evening. After dinner, let him saunter in the 
lovely evening light, when the shore is looking 



Ilaiihattaii Beach. 47 

its prettiest, as far as the eastern end of the 
island, and engage a man and a boat for the 
morning; let liim retire early, and when the 
sun is mounting the eastern sk}-, suffusing 
the little world in view with rose-color and 
gold, making a ruby wine of the dark waters, 
— let him embark and cross the bar. The 
waves are crisp, glassy and fringed with foam ; 
as they leap into peaks the light flashes 
through them and shows how green they are ; 
but a surface-glow lies upon them, and shifts 
about, appearing and disappearing, and losing 
intensity of color as the sun rises higher. The 
wake of the little boat, as she dances over the 
undulations, sparkles and bubbles as with mill- 
ions of diamonds, and the sea exhales a com- 
municative vitality which soon puts the party 
in the highest possible condition of exuberance. 
With the lines trolling astern, it is not long 
before you have some fish shining and pris- 
matic in the bottom of the boat, and when you 
have exhausted the sport you recross the bar, 
and land. The probabilities are that your 
appetite will not allow you to bathe before 
breakfast, and, seated under the piazza of the 
hotel, with the sea-breeze playing around you, 
you consult the vicim. The table is spread 
with snowy linen and sparkles with crystal 
ware ; the gaijon is ci\ il and intelligent. What 



48 The Story of 

shall we order ? Some grapes or peaches to 
begin with, certainly ; then some half-shell 
clams with a bottle of Chablis ; then 2. filet oi 
sole, sauce tartare ; or, do you not like smelts, 
breaded, with dry toast and a cup of fragrant 
Mocha ? The fish-cook of the Manhattan 
Beach hotel develops unsuspected delicacy of 
flavor in his dishes ; and while you are discuss- 
ing the filet of sole w^ith sauce tartare, or the 
breaded smelts, an ever-changing animated 
throng of promenaders enlivens the beach, and 
hundreds of bathers in the water divert you 
and seem to become rhythmic in their motions 
responsively to the strains of the band. Look- 
ing beyond the surf, an unbroken fleet of ves- 
sels are coming and going by the great ship 
channel, — perhaps two or three of the le\ia- 
thans of modern ocean steamship lines, — and 
}'ou become emulous of the power of the 
marine painter to transfer some of this beauty 
to canvas. 

We have scarcely left ourselves sufficient 
space to describe the various routes to Man- 
hattan Beach, each of which has some interest- 
ing features. The pleasantest, no doubt, for 
the stranger, is by steamer to Bay Ridge, and 
thence by rail. The boats are of the finest 
class, — large, swift, and handsomely fitted up. 
The North River landings are at West Twenty- 



Manhattan Beach. 49 

second street, Le Roy street, Pier Eight 
(foot of Rector street), and the Battery. 
The Twenty-second street landing is easily 
reached by cars which traverse Twenty- 
third street and connect with all other lines 
in the city; it is about se\'en minutes dis- 
tant from Madison square. The Le Roy 
street landing is passed by the Belt line cars, 
and is within two or three blocks of the 
Houston street cars. It is also the terminus 
of the Hoboken ferry, the Blue line of cars 
running through P'ourteenth street. Union 
square and Seventeenth street to East Twenty- 
third street, the White cars running through 
Eighth street across to\\'n, and the Cream- 
colored cars running through Fourteenth street 
to Union square. Passengers living as far up- 
town as Central Park may, by taking the 
Metropolitan Elevated Road to Eighth street, 
and the street cars thence to Christopher street, 
reach the landing within twenty minutes, and 
the beach within seventy minutes, while pre- 
vious to the opening of the Bay Ridge route, 
the same trip would have occupied two hours 
and a half The Rector street landing is within 
a few minutes' walk of Wall street and of all 
that portion of the city below City Hall Park. 
The landing at the Battery — foot of Whitehall 
street — is made by a special boat, connecting 



MANHATTAN BEACH R.R.& 
NEWYORK CQJsINECTIONS 




3Iaiihaitan Bcacli. 51 

witli both elevated roads, and is the shortest 
water route to the beach. 

The varied traffic of the river, the activities 
of the \vhar\'es and the beauties of the upper 
bay combine to make the sail to Bay Ridge 
one of the most attractive in the world. The 
Hudson washes thirteen miles of the city's shore 
line, every foot of \\'hich is available for vessels 
of the largest tonnage, and the upper bay has 
fourteen square miles of anchorage. Over 
two-thirds of all the duties collected on imports 
in the United States are paid through New- 
York, and while the total value of all exports 
from this country is about $682,000,000 an- 
nually, the total value of those from New-York 
alone is nearly $345,000,000 of this amount. 
Nearly 6,000 vessels, measuring 5,000,000 
tons, come into the harbor every year from 
foreign ports, besides about 2,500 vessels 
engaged in the coastwise trade. The water is 
plowed in every direction by all kinds of 
vessels, and the air is resonant with tlie vehe- 
ment whistling of the steamers. Squat, tur- 
tle-like ferry-boats, black with passengers ; 
palatial river-steamers with tier above tier 
of state-rooms ; capacious barges ; cockle-shell 
row-boats ; solid-looking dredging machines ; 
coasting steamers and full-rigged ships — not 



52 The Story of 

only those which are common to all harbors, 
but many varieties of less familiar appearance, 
churn the water into foam and dodge each 
other so dexterously that the collision Avhich 
seems inevitable is constantly averted. The 
stranger strains his eyes and his understanding 
in a vain endeavor to discover the nature of 
two heavy barges, which are fitted with rail- 
way tracks, and from which the cars are trans- 
ferred to another track in the city. A further 
illustration of this characteristically American 
expedient may be seen in the " Maryland," a 
leviathan railway ferry-boat, that forges her 
way daily from the Harlem River- to Jersey 
City, bearing a whole train of passenger cars 
a distance of over eight miles, and forming an 
all-rail route from Boston and the East to 
Philadelphia and the South. 

Another strange-looking craft is the floating 
derrick of the Dock Department ; and stranger 
still are the grain elevators, which look like 
houses afloat. The roofs and the straggling 
water-front, with its embattlements of sail-lofts 
and stores ; the long fringe of shipping, with 
its forests of masts and black net- work of 
cordage, are all that we can see of the city 
from the river, but the reverberations of its 
noisy heart-beatings come to the ear in low 



Maiiliattan Bcaclt. 53 

surges, and mingle with the lapping and splash 
of the water. The ceiulean overhead is not 
perceptibly dimmed by the filmy smoke of the 
anthracite coal, which is the common fuel, and 
the water, though it is not the deep blue and 
green of the sea, is still green compared with 
the water of Liverpool, London, Philadelphia 
and Baltimore. The picturesqueness of the 
harbor is attested by the frequency with which 
it is selected for illustration by the best Amer- 
ican painters. 

The stranger is impressed with the apparent 
inconsistency in the names of the North and 
East rivers. The North, which is the Hudson, 
appears to be so named after the point of the 
compass from which it flows, while the direc- 
tion of the East River, which borders the city 
on the eastern side, seems never to have been 
taken into consideration in its nomenclature. 
The fact is, however, that the North Ri\-er was 
so named by the early Dutch, to distinguish it 
from the Delaware, which was called the South 
River. 

Near the Twenty-second street landing of 
the Manhattan Heach steamers, on the North 
River, we see the immense grain warehouses, 
built for the use of the New- York Central 
Railwa\', where the grain is transferred -in 



54 The Story of 

bulk from the cars which have brought it 
from the West to large ocean steamers for 
conveyance to Europe ; and in the same 
vicinity is the handsome building known 
as Manhattan Market, which is now used 
for other purposes than those for which it was 
i.itended. Between the Le Roy street landing 
and Canal street are clustered the wharves of 
the principal transatlantic lines, — the Cunard, 
White Star, Inman, Guion, National, Anchor, 
State and French lines, and a representa- 
tive steamer of each is usually in dock. 
Probably no other port in the world harbors 
in the same concentrated space as many 
superb vessels. It is not unusual to see eight 
steamers here at one time measuring nearly 
forty thousand tons, and aggregating about 
four million dollars in value. The view is 
imposing in the extreme. 

Below Canal street, the various Southern 
steamers are seen at their piers, — steamers for 
Richmond, Charleston, Savannah, New Orleans, 
Galveston, Bermuda and Mexico, besides the 
sumptuous vessels used in navigating the 
Sound and the Hudson. Now and then a 
glimpse is caught of the Brooklyn Bridge 
towers, and the many commercial palaces on 
Broadway loom up magnificently. The circu- 



Manliattan Beach. 5-5 

lar structure in the Battery Park is Castle Gar- 
den, where tlie newly arrived immigrant is 
landed and cared for. He is taken from the 
sliip by tenders into the vast rotunda, where 
all his reasonable wants are supplied. His 
biography is tabulated in a voluminous regis- 
ter ; should he become sick within a certain 
time after his arrival, the Commissioners of 
Emigration are bound to admit him to their 
hospital ; should his ultimate destination be 
beyond the city, responsible agents of railway 
companies are on hand to supply him with 
tickets at the lowest rate ; his thalers, sover- 
eigns or napoleons are exchanged for United 
States currency ; means of communication with 
absent friends are opened to him, and, in brief, 
everything possible is done to protect him from 
swindlers and help him on his way. 

As we leave the South Ferry landing, the 
vista of the East River is opened to us with 
hundreds of magnificent barques, schooners, 
brigs and sloops at the wharves. A little to 
the east are the docks which receive the im- 
mense freight of the Erie Canal. The princi- 
pal lines of transportation from the West to the 
East include about ten thousand miles of rail- 
way, seven thousand miles of river, sixteen 
hundred miles of lake, and sixteen hundred 



-56 The Story of 

miles of canal. The total freight carried over 
them in a year is about ten million tons, one- 
fourth of which comes through the Erie Canal 
and down the Hudson River, whence it is 
delivered near the Battery landing of the Man- 
hattan Beach boats. Four ferries and two 
elevated roads converge in the same locality — 
two of the ferries from Staten Island, and two 
from Brooklyn. 

Our steamer now heads down the bay, with 
Governor's Island on one side and Bedloe's 
Island on the other. The low green line of 
the Long Island shore toward Bay Ridge and 
the heights of Staten Island are seen in the 
distance. Governor's Island was the site of 
the first settlement in New- York, and has had 
a varied and eventful history ; it was a per- 
quisite of the British governors " in the good 
old colony times when we lived under a king," 
and hence its present name ; but it was pre- 
viously known as Nutten Island, from the 
number and excellence of the nuts which grew 
upon it. It was also the first place of quaran- 
tine in New-York, and was captured by 
Admiral Howe as he moved his fleet up the 
bay after the battle of Long Island. Two 
batteries of artillery now occupy it, and it is 
the head-quarters of the general commanding 



Manliattau Beach. 57 

the Department of the Atlantic. The smaller 
island to the westward is Bedloe's, which is 
also fortified, and this is the proposed site of 
the colossal statue of Liberty. A strong, 
exhilarating breeze blows in upon us from the 
sea, and the water falls in crisp spray over the 
bow. In a few minutes we are landed at Bay 
Ridge, where the Manhattan Beach Railway 
Company has erected a splendid pier, depot 
and waiting-rooms, and where the passengers 
are quickly transferred to the trains in waiting 
for them. The view from the pier is very 
beautiful. The bay reaches out toward the 
Jersey coast and the Kill Von Kull, and the 
Long Island shore is a vivid green to the 
water's edge. We have already spoken of 
the equipment of the railway, and we may 
reiterate that it includes every invention that 
can increase the comfort and safety of those 
traveling by it. It extends at first in a south- 
easterly direction, between high embankments 
and underneath the various avenues, until it 
emerges into a fertile and picturesque country ; 
then it follows an easterly course, and near 
Deerfoot Park passes under the fine Ocean 
Parkway, connects with the Greenpoint branch, 
and thejice extends in a direct southerly line 
to the rear of the hotel on the beach. 



58 The Story of 

The Greenpoint route is not only a fast and 
commodious way to the beach in summer, but 
it also affords one-fourth of Brooklyn rapid 
transit to business in New- York ; it is building 
up and populating large portions of the eight- 
eenth, twenty-first and twenty-fifth wards in 
the former city, and it is a convenient means 
of freight transportation from the East River 
to the suburbs. The passenger trains in 
Greenpoint are connected with the city by 
steamers running from Twenty-third street 
and Tenth street, where street-cars establish 
communications with every part of the city. 
The Twenty-third street (buff line) cars 
intersect all the avenues and Broadway ; the 
Houston street (yellow line) pass through 
Lexington avenue to Forty-second street ; the 
Seventeenth street (blue line) reach Union 
square, and thence go down West Fourteenth 
street; the Dry Dock line (green) and the Belt 
line (red) touch nearly all the arterial thorough- 
fares of the eastern district, and the White line 
from Tenth street runs directly across the city. 
The East River, at Tenth and Twenty-third 
streets is not as variedly picturesque as the 
North River, but it has many features of 
interest. The great iron-works are in the 
neighborhood of the former ; and steamers that 



Manltattaii Beach. 59 

are being dismantled lie at the adjacent piers, 
which are covered with a miscellaneous heap 
of fragments — the separated sections of marine 
engines, rusty boiler-plates, battered smoke- 
stacks, and green copper-sheathings. Not 
long ago the ruined hulk of the " Ocean 
Queen" was lying here, — a famous vessel; 
in the palmy days of the Panama route 
to California she had been true to her name, 
but now her broken rigging draggled from 
the masts and spars ; the seams between her 
timbers gaped, and the paint was peeling 
off The two funnels were battered and red 
with rust. The once cozy little state-rooms 
on the upper deck, in which the warm tropi- 
cal winds had fanned the grateful passengers, 
were dismal, chilly, and destitute of furni- 
ture ; every bit of gilt and upholstery had been 
stripped off her once gorgeous saloon ; and the 
engine-room, in which her large heart of fire 
had burned, was a shadowy, echoing void. 
Close to her lay the iron-clad " Montauk " in a 
still more woeful condition of wreck, her thick 
plates dimpled with the hemispheres of hun- 
dreds of cannon-balls which had struck them 
in the civil war without penetrating them ; her 
decks torn up by shells, and her smoke-stack 
bent and indented. Side by side with these 



60 The Story of 

shattered veterans were new wliite river 
steamers and larger sea-going steamers, into 
which engines and boilers were being placed 
by demon-like mechanics, — mechanics dressed 
in .black and greasy overalls, whose fierce- 
looking eyes were set in ebon faces, and 
whose hammers were rained upon the bolts 
and plates with vindictive energy. Most of 
the ship-building of the port is done at Green- 
point, and in the yards near the ferry may be 
seen the skeleton-like frames of future ships 
and steamers. At the foot of Twenty-sixth 
street, Bellevue Hospital is conspicuous, and an 
interesting object at the foot of Twenty-third 
street is the " St. Mary's," an old war-ship 
devoted to the education of boys for the 
American mercantile marine. 

In closing this sketch, we recapitulate briefly 
the various routes to the beach. 

The North River route by steamer to Bay 
Ridge, and thence by rail ; the East River 
route via Greenpoint ; and the South Ferry 
route, also by water to Bay Ridge. The North 
River boats receive passengers at Twenty- 
second street, Leroy street, and Rector street. 
All stations of the elevated roads sell tickets for 
the beach via the South Ferry boats. On 
the East River, ferries at Twenty-third and 



Manhattan Beach. 



61 



Tenth streets connect half-hourly with trains 
at Greenpoint. It will thus be seen that no 
watering-place is so accessible to the crowded 
population of New-York and vicinity as the 
delightful resort which has been built up at 
the eastern end of Coney Island. 

No more remains for us, kind reader, than to 
in\ite you to test the truth of the story we 
have here given of Manhattan Beach. 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



^**3D5S»fi 



014 109 360 5 * 



I 




'^/ 






